IInd Turkish-Latin American and Caribbean Congress has been held by the cooperation of Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) and the Research and Implementation Center for Latin American Studies (LAMER) of Ankara University. Many academicians, bureaucrats and representatives of civil society organizations from both Turkey and Latin American countries attended to this Congress, held in the 100th Year Auditorium of Ankara University Rectorate between the 23th and 25th of September.
In the second of the Latin American and Caribbean Congress, which was first started by the initiative of TASAM in 2009, the declarations presented by esteemed participants around the axis of “Regional Integration, Cooperation and Development in Latin America and Caribbean“ were followed by the audience that consisted of different bureaucrats, academicians and firms.
The opening statements of the Congress were presented by the Chairman of TASAM Süleyman Şensoy, the Rector of Ankara University Prof. Dr. Cemal Taluğ, Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator of the Foreign Ministry of T.R. Ambassador Osman Ulukan, Ankara Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil Andrade de Moraes Jardim and Deputy Secretary of the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade Bülent Ecevit on behalf of the State Minister Zafer Çağlayan.
Starting his speech by thanking Ankara University for hosting this Congress, Chairman of TASAM Süleyman Şensoy stated that TASAM is not carrying out its initiatives for only one time and it has been working by the perspective of institutionalization in each activity.
He continued his speech to say that the first of this Congress was held last year and within two years, they have organized workshops attended by Latin American diplomatic mission representatives living in Turkey and related Turkish parties.
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| Chairman of TASAM, Süleyman Şensoy, giving his opening statement in the IInd Turkish – Latin American and Caribbean Congress. |
Again within this sense, they have signed agreements with the pioneering institutions of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, and the new round table meetings will be started alternately in the upcoming months. Chairman Şensoy outlines that when the fact that Turkey aims to be effective in important global matters with its regional power is considered, the significance of the relations between the countries of the region and Turkey gets even more explicit. He drew the attention to the mutual mental thresholds in various fields and pointed out that serious efforts have to be given in order to overcome these mental thresholds by evaluating the point where technology and especially human transportation, logistics and communication have come so far.
He added that “For creating a system based on power and justice, the values of Latin America and civil movements give an important message to the world. There are some common cultural and historical areas between the Latin American and Caribbean region and Turkey. I hope that these overlapping areas will contribute to the development of relations in between.“
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| Rector of Ankara University Prof. Dr. Cemal Taluğ, giving his opening statement in the IInd Turkish – Latin American and Caribbean Congress. |
Rector of Ankara University Prof. Dr. Cemal Taluğ declared in his statement that they, as the Ankara University, have been continuing to establish regional research centers and carry out studies in this field. They have established the Research and Implementation Center for Latin American Studies (LAMER). He said that the Center was not only established by the efforts of the Ankara University, and he thanked Ernesto Gomez Abascal for his contributions he gave in the process of opening this center.
Rector Prof. Dr. Cemal Taluğ also thanked the Chairman of TASAM, Süleyman Şensoy, for bringing this opportunity to increase the role of universities in international relations under the “Public Diplomacy“.
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| Latin American and Caribbean Coordinator of the Foreign Ministry of T.R. Ambassador Osman Ulukan, giving his opening statement in the IInd Turkish – Latin American and Caribbean Congress. |
In his statement, Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator of the Foreign Ministry of T.R. Ambassador Osman Ulukan declared that the Ministry has been focusing on the Latin American and Caribbean region and within this sense, the LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) project was started in1998. Ambassador Ulukan said that the initiatives regarding this region have been intensified since 2006 and there are eight embassies in the region at the moment. New embassies will be added to the current ones soon. He emphasized the importance of Public Diplomacy and said that “the relations have to be developed by establishing cooperations in every field.“
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| Ankara Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil Marcelo Andrade de Moraes Jardim, giving his opening statement in the IInd Turkish – Latin American and Caribbean Congress. |
Ankara Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil Andrade de Moraes Jardim, starting his speech by expressing that he was feeling proud to be presenting a speech to the guests of the Congress organized by TASAM, stated that the interest of Turkey in Latin America and the relations between these two parts have not only been kept in the official levels and the other parts of the community also share this view. TASAM has been using its privileged initiative to spread and accelerate this policy of the Foreign Ministry. He expressed his feeling that the relations will be carried to higher levels by the contributions of academicians and representatives of civil society organizations from both Turkey and LAC region.
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| Deputy Secretary of the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade Bülent Ecevit, giving his speech in the Congress. |
And the last of the opening statements was presented by the Deputy Secretary of the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade Bülent Ecevit on behalf of the State Minister Zafer Çağlayan. He stated that the relations have long been kept under its real potential as a result of the lack of information about the region and the geographical distance, however, there have been good improvements in relations during the last period. Deputy Secretary Bülent Ecevit stated that a Free Trade Agreement has been signed with Chile and negotiations concerning this agreement have been continued by MERCOSUR. In this process, cultural cooperations are as important as economic cooperations. Thus the Turkish Professorship opened at the Cuba Havana University declared that next year they will start the education. Ecevit said that “In the year 2023, the hundredth anniversary of our Republic, Latin America region has a great importance for reaching to the exportation targets.“
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| The IInd Turkish – Latin America and Caribbean Congress drew great interest. |
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| Director of the Research and Implementation Center for Latin American Studies (LAMER) of Ankara University Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Necati Mutlu giving his speech in the Congress. |
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| In the first session “Economic Integration and Institutionalization in Latin America and Caribbean“ chaired by the Deputy Chairman of TASAM (R) Ambassador Murat Bilhan (from left to right): Dr. Patricia Solomone from the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Argentina, Director of COMEXI Aurora Adame, (R) Ambassador Murat Bilhan, Prof. Dr. Carlos Malamud from Real Instituto Elcano and Chairman of CURI Dr. Abogado Sergio Abreu. |
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| In the second session “Economic Integration and Institutionalization in Latin America and Caribbean 2“ chaired by the Deputy Chairman of TASAM (R) Ambassador Murat Bilhan (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Eduardo Fidel Hector Ardisana from UNAH, Prof. Dr. Hernan G. H. Taboada from CIALC, UNAM, Luis Domingo Mendiola from CARI, (R) Ambassador Murat Bilhan, Chairman of the World Family Organization Dr. Deisi Kusztra and Director of the Brezil Higher Education Ministry Dr. Reinaldo Rojas. |
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| In the third session “Integration Institutions in Latin America and Caribbean“ chaired by the Director of LAMER Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Necati Kutlu (from left to right): Ernesto Gomez Abascal from the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Cuba, Dra. Maria de Montserrat Llario, Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Necati Kutlu, Prof. Dr. Rıdvan Karluk from the Anadolu University Rıdvan Karluk and Dr. Elena Lazarou from Fundacao Fetulio Vargas. |
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| In the fourth session “Integration Institutions in Latin America and Caribbean 2“ chaired by the Director of LAMER Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Necati Kutlu (from left to right): Beatriz Nadia Perez Dominiquez from UNAM, Prof. Dr. Vildan Serin from Fatih University, Jorge Lopez Morton from COMCE, Director of LAMER Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Necati Kutlu, Dr. Margarita Vargas from UNAM and Juan Sanchez Alvarez from the Los Lagos University. |
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| In the fifth session “Developmental Cooperation between Turkey and the Latin American and Caribbean Region“ chaired by the Director of COMEXI. Aurora Adame (from left to right): Esin Şen from İGEME, Dr. Kenan Aydınoğlu from UNISANA, Director of COMEXI Aurora Adame, Dr. Reynaldo Jimenez from FLACSO, Bursa Consular Agent of Brazil – Board Member of DEİK Brazil Business Council Silvyo Benbassat and Zehra Sayar from Türk Eximbank. |
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| In the sixth session “Integration Institutions and Cooperation Perspectives in Latin America and Caribbean“ chaired Luis Domingo Mendiola from CARI. (from left to right): Dr. Celia Szusturman from the Westminster University, Ankara Representative of TASAM (R) Ambassador Asst. Prof. Dr. Ali Engin Oba from the Çağ University, Luis Domingo Mendiola, Dr. Eymen Çelik Wiltse from Hacettepe University, Asst. Prof. Dr. Gilberto Aranda Bustamente from the Chile University and Manuel Ferez from CIDAM. |
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| In the seventh session “Integration Institutions and Cooperation Perspectives in Latin America and Caribbean 2“ chaired Luis Domingo Mendiola from CARI. (from left to right): Metin Yeğin, Vice Rector of Megatrend University and Director of Center for Latin American Studies Prof. Dr. Slobodan S. Pajovic, Luis Domingo Mendiola, Dr. Emine Tahsin from the School of Economics of Istanbul University, Elif Tuğba Doğan and Kubilayhan Erman from the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University. |
In the 8th and last session of the Congress, which is titled as General Evaluation and Closing Session, Director of the Research and Implementation Center for Latin American Studies of Ankara University, Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Necati Kutlu, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil Marcelo Andrade de Moraes Jardim, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Raul Jose Betancourt Seeland, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba Jorge Quesada Conception, Ambassador of the Republic of Chile Luis Kenneth Palmas Castillo, Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador Augusto Alejandro Saa Corriere, Ambassador of the United Mexican States Jaime Garcia Amaral and Ambassador of the Republic of Argentina Armando Juan Jose Maffei presented their evaluation speeches.
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| The participants did not forget to take a souvenir photo in the IInd Turkish - Latin American and Caribbean Congress. |
Diplomatic mission chefs of Latin America were also very interested in the Congress. On September, 23, the opening day of the Congress, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil Marcelo Andrade de Moraes Jardim organized a reception for the honor of the guests. Again, on September 24, Ambassador of the United Mexican States Jaime Garcia Amaral organized another reception. In these receptions organized after the intense days of the Congress experts, academicians, bureaucrats and representatives of civil society organizations from Turkey and Latin American countries founded the opportunity to know each other better and establish close and amicable relations.
In these five sessions of the Congress, the negotiated topics are: “Economic Integration and Institutionalization in Latin America and Caribbean“, “Integration Institutions in Latin America and Caribbean“, “Developmental Cooperation between Turkey and the Latin American and Caribbean Region“, “Integration Institutions and Cooperation Perspectives in Latin America and Caribbean“.
